














































































































































Gopyiigk N'L_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 






f 



OTHER ROOKS BY MR. HUSE 


LETTERS ON THE ATONEMENT 
THE SOUL OF A CHILD 
THEOLOGY OF A MODERN METHODIST 




The Christian 

Life 

How to Begin. How to Keep On. 
How to Be Useful. How to Be Happy. 



RAYMOND HUSE 



THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 

CINCINNATI 


NEW YORK 





» 


Copyright, 1923, by 
RAYMOND HUSE 


All rights reserved, Including that of translation into 
foreign languages, including the Scandinavian 


©C1A765329 

Printed in the United States of America 

DFC 13 1923 


"Vvfr f 


GRATEFULLY DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND 
ABBIE L. HAYES 

AT WHOSE QUIET HOME THESE PAGES 
WERE WRITTEN 


\ 


/ 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


CHAPTER 

Foreword. 9 

I. Conversion—Our Part “Turn¬ 
ing”. 11 

II. Conversion—Our Part “Follow¬ 
ing”. 18 

III. Conversion—God’s Part “Inner 

Peace”. 24 

IV. Conversion—God’s Part “Inner 

Power”. 29 

V. Conversion—God’s Part “The 

Inner Presence”. 36 

VI. Spiritual Help—The Bible_ 41 

VII. Spiritual Help—Prayer. 47 

VIII. Spiritual Help—The Church ... 53 

IX. Christian Service—Our Lives. . 59 

X. Christian Service—Our Money 65 

XI. The Christian Vision—The Vic¬ 


torious Life. 70 

XII. The Christian Vision—“The 

Alabaster City”. 74 

XIII. The Joyous Life. 81 

XIV. The Christian’s Home in Glory 88 






















i 


FOREWORD 


The author of this book has rendered a 
real service to the church. Those who read 
its pages will be grateful to him for his care¬ 
ful and painstaking study. The pastor will 
appreciate the treatise because of the clear 
and positive way in which the essentials of 
our faith are set forth. The layman will 
not need to live near to his unabridged dic¬ 
tionary to keep himself from being lost in 
theological terminology. The young con¬ 
vert will be led by easy and delightful proc¬ 
esses to appreciate the value and to appro¬ 
priate the helpfulness of the institutions of 
Christianity for the development and ex¬ 
pression of his religious life. The personal 
worker will find here fresh and convincing il¬ 
lustrations of the greatness, the simplicity 
and naturalness of the Christian faith, and 
will be better prepared to win his fellow 
man to Christ and the church. 

We bespeak for the book a very wide cir¬ 
culation. We can think of no better way 
to strengthen the faith of the young Chris- 

9 


FOREWORD 


tian than by placing this book in his hands 
when he unites with the church and request¬ 
ing him to carefully and prayerfully peruse 
its pages. 

May the blessing of God attend it as it 
goes forth on its high and holy purpose as 
a good minister of Jesus Christ. 

George B. Dean, Superintendent De¬ 
partment of Evangelism, Board of 
Home Missions and Church Exten¬ 
sion, Methodist Episcopal Church. 


10 


CHAPTER I 


CONVERSION—OUR PART 
“TURNING” 

F©lks are like apple trees, and the pro¬ 
duction of character, sweet and wholesome 
in spirit and juicy with genuine joy, is like 
raising fruit. 

My friend, who has an apple orchard, 
finds that there are two distinct elements 
that contribute to the bounteous crop. In 
the first place, there is the work of his own 
hands. He has to plant and graft and 
prune and spray. It is what he does—my 
hard-working fruit man—that makes the 
difference between the bitter fruit of some 
gnarled old w T ild apple tree and his lovely 
fruitful orchard. 

Then, there is what God does directly. 
The sap that climbs up in the trunk and 
trickles out into the branches, the mys¬ 
terious invisible life principle that makes 
bud and blossom and fruit—there is no hu¬ 
man concern that can produce that. 

11 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


Of course what we might call the human 
element is also divine in its origin. The 
skill of head and hand which enables the 
workman among the fruit trees to do his 
work is given by the same Princely Pro¬ 
vider, who makes the branches blossom and 
fruit. However, because the exercise and 
development of it is intrusted to us, we call 
it the human element. 

“Our wills are ours, we know not how; 

Our wills are ours, to make them thine.” 

Of course, if a man would raise fruit, it is 
primarily important that he be thoroughly 
skilled in the part he must do—the human 
element. However, a knowledge of what we 
call nature is also desirable. The “reaction” 
of nature helps a man to know whether he 
is doing his part wisely and well. 

There is a human side to conversion that 
corresponds to the planting and the graft¬ 
ing, the pruning and the spraying. The 
purpose of these opening chapters is to treat 
of this side, of “Our Part.” It will be read¬ 
ily seen that, practically speaking, this is 
the more important part; and yet, as in the 
case of the fruit trees, it is well for us to 

12 


OUR PART “TURNING” 


know about God’s part also. The “reaction” 
of the Spirit of God on our lives will show 
us whether we are doing our part wisely and 
well. 

Of the first disciples, whose beautiful de¬ 
cision is described in the Gospel of John, 
we might say that they turned and followed 
Jesus. The record does not use these very 
words, but they well describe what took 
place. There can be no better description 
or definition of the human side of conversion. 
It is turning and following Jesus. 

It is “turning.” The moral message of 
the Old Testament prophets is well sum¬ 
marized in the pathetic appeal, “Turn ye, 
turn ye, why will ye die?” The Greek word 
translated “conversion” in the New Testa¬ 
ment is often rendered “turning” in some of 
the modern versions. 

Conversion means that if you are on the 
wrong road in life, you turn around and go 
back to the guideboard and take the right 
one. 

When I was studying elocution the in¬ 
structor told us that we ought to breathe 
deeply from the bottom of our lungs, not 
taking little shiftless gasps from their over¬ 
worked top. When we asked him how to 

13 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


do it, he said, “Breathing is largely con¬ 
trolled by the will.” We at once tried it 
out and were really surprised to see how 
even this simple physical habit is controlled 
by human choice. This is even more true 
of our moral direction. 

Our souls travel the way we choose to go. 
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him 
return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy 
upon him; and to our God, for he will abun¬ 
dantly pardon.” 

A beautiful young girl came to my study 
one day and asked, “What must I give up to 
be a Christian? I have been trained by a 
good mother from my childhood to live a 
pure life and have tried to follow her teach¬ 
ing. What must I give up to be a Chris¬ 
tian?” I was new in Christian work at that 
time, but there came to me a helpful flash of 
inspiration, and I said, “Edna, sometimes we 
have to give up our own way.” Her eyes 
fell and she said, “I understand.” The 
teaching of Jesus plows much more deeply 
than the mere externals of conduct. “Turn¬ 
ing” means more than the resolution to be 
conventionally moral and decent. Sam 
Jones says it means “quit your meanness.” 

14 


OUR PART “TURNING” 


One infinitely greater said, “If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself. 991 

It cannot be too strongly stated that it is 
well to turn and take the right road before 
you have gone very far on the wrong road! 

Sometimes, in our attempt to magnify the 
miracle of conversion we have not emphasized 
the importance of this truth. When I at¬ 
tended prayer meeting as a lad, from the 
testimony of the “saints” I got the idea that 
it w T as a great thing to be very bad before 
conversion. I almost thought that I had 
started the good way too soon and had bet¬ 
ter “backslide” and start over again later, 
that I might have a more glowing miracle- 
story to tell. 

Gipsy Smith tells of attending a reli¬ 
gious service in which eager and grateful 
people were speaking of the wonder of sav¬ 
ing grace. One man had been saved from 
gambling, another from stealing, and an¬ 
other from drunkenness. There was much 
enthusiasm as each told his grateful story. 
Then the white-souled man, who had lived for 
Christ since the far-away days when the 
sainted Sankey visited the gypsy camp, 
arose and said: “God has done more for me 
italics not in original. 

15 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


than for any of you that have spoken. He 
saved me from ever becoming a gambler, a 
thief, or a drunkard. It is better to build a 
hedge at the top of the precipice than to 
have a hospital at its foot.” Amen, gentle 
Gipsy! 

A man who, as a result of sin, loses an arm 
or an eye, does not have these lost members 
restored to him at the mourner’s bench. 
And the intellectual, moral and spiritual 
losses that result from sin are equally per¬ 
manent. Therefore, young man, keep your 
record clean! I have said you had better 
turn back and take the right road before 
3 ^ou have gone far on the wrong one. Let 
me amend that statement and say that it is 
better never to take a single step on the 
wrong road, eternally better. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe tells of a minis¬ 
ter who said to a splendid young man, “My 
boy, is it not about time you gave your heart 
to Christ?” 

“I have done so,” was the earnest reply. 
“I am glad, my boy,” said the preacher. 
“When did you do it?” 

And the young man replied, “I have al¬ 
ways done so .” 

This is the true Christian ideal. A single 

16 


OUR PART “TURNING” 


step on the wrong road, a single hour in sin, 
is abnormal and contrary to God’s plan for 
our lives. The statement of Jesus that the 
one who is forgiven most will love most 
manifestly refers not to the experience of 
sin but to the consciousness of sin. The heart 
that cares, that is sensitive to the touch of 
moral soil, is the heart that glows with grati¬ 
tude and love to our Divine Deliverer. 

My friend, whose eyes peruse these pages, 
wherever you are on the wrong road, the first 
step for you is to turn and seek the right 
road. The sooner you turn, the gladder you 
will be forever and forever. 


17 


CHAPTER II 


CONVERSION—OUR PART 
“FOLLOWING” 

That familiar and expressive advertise¬ 
ment “His Master’s Voice” is full of spirit¬ 
ual meaning. You remember the picture— 
the intelligent little dog listening at the Vic- 
trola horn and recognizing his master’s 
voice. 

Every normal human being recognizes his 
Master’s voice. We are potential sons of 
the Eternal God and are made so that we 
know when our Father speaks to us. 

Those early disciples, who followed Jesus, 
did not follow him because they reasoned out 
that he must be the Son of God and, there¬ 
fore, they should hear and heed him. That 
conviction came as a result of their follow¬ 
ing. They followed him because they recog¬ 
nized their Master’s voice. 

It is the same with us. The Christ still 
speaks ; and we recognize his voice. Hr. 
Richard W. Swain in his book What and 

18 



“FOLLOWING” 


Where is God? tells how he first saw God. 
It was in his mother’s face. He was in her 
lap in prayer meeting and he saw that she 
was troubled. Sensitive child that he was, 
it clouded all his sky. Then he saw her lips 
move in prayer and a look of calm and radi¬ 
ance spread over her countenance like sun¬ 
light over the somber hills. And the little 
laddie in her lap saw God! The early dis¬ 
ciples saw the glory of God in the face of 
Jesus Christ. We see the glory of Christ 
in human faces and human lives. Thank God 
for the unbroken succession of living epis¬ 
tles, read and known of all men. 

Our Master’s voice also comes to us in 
what we call the gospel—the good tidings— 
whether this gospel be written or spoken. 
As the doctrine of the person of Christ logi¬ 
cally and chronologically follows a fellow¬ 
ship with Christ, so our doctrine of the Holy 
Scriptures follows our acquaintance with 
these Scriptures. We do not so much read 
the Bible because we believe it is God’s Word, 
as we believe it is God’s Word because we 
read it—and see the face of the Christ shin¬ 
ing through its lattice work. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson speaks of the hu¬ 
man soul as the place where God comes to 

19 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


call without ringing the bell. The Spirit of 
Christ speaks to our spirit directly and we 
recognize the Master’s voice. 

The Christ who came to the early disci¬ 
ples beside the Syrian sea, comes to us in 
these three distinct and beautiful ways. I 
think he comes in many more. He is always 
coming, and in events the meaning of which 
at first we cannot understand we hear soon 
the voice of Him who spoke of old to the 
restless waves of the midnight sea. But by 
these three definite ways he comes: first, by 
radiant Christian lives; second, by the gos¬ 
pel written and spoken; third, by his Spirit 
within. 

Beginning the Christian life is doing what 
the early disciples did when they heard the 
Master’s voice—turning and following. In 
the first chapter we considered the meaning 
of “turning.” In this chapter let us think 
of “following.” By the way, these two words 
and acts correspond to those fine old theo¬ 
logical terms “repentance” and “faith,” and 
we have here what Paul said was the heart 
of his message—“Repentance toward God, 
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

For the early disciples to follow Jesus 
meant, first of all, for them to go to school 

20 



“FOLLOWING” 


to Christ . The very words “Master,” or 
“Teacher,” and “disciple,” or “scholar,” im¬ 
ply this beautiful fact. And going to school 
to Christ meant hearing and heeding his 
matchless teachings. These teachings are 
still the wonder of the ages. All must admit 
that never man spake like this man. One 
of the best summaries of the teachings of 
Christ I read one day in the Christian Reg¬ 
ister. I am sorry I am unable to recall the 
author, and I am sure I have slightly 
changed its words, but not its essential 
meaning. 

“God is Our Father, 

Man is our Brother, 

Life is a mission and not a career. 

Giving is living. 

Withholding is dying, 

We carry on yonder our work begun here.” 

In the second place, following Christ 
meant to the disciples following his exam¬ 
ple. Dr. Lucius H. Bugbee in his Prepara¬ 
tory Lessons for Church Membership 1 says 
that the unique distinction of Jesus Christ, 
as a religious teacher, is that he lived his 
own teachings. He might have added that 
this is the best proof of his deity. 


1 Methodist Book Concern. 

21 






THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


To try to live like Jesus, to do what he 
would do, to say what he would say—that 
was the passion of the earliest disciples and 
may well be the ideal of the latest disciples. 

Finally, to follow Christ meant to become 
his comrade! I heard of a successful busi¬ 
ness man who when asked to account for his 
achievements said, simply, “J had a friend” 
Even in human friendship the real power of 
it is subtle, intangible, indescribable. We 
may speak of the advice our friend gives us, 
of the practical helpfulness he shows, but 
those invisible “cords of love” and “bands of 
a man” by which he holds our spirit to him 
and to truth—these cannot be weighed or 
measured. 

Of course this is even more so w r ith a Di¬ 
vine Friend. To those early disciples he 
was the vine, they were the branches; he 
was the bread of heaven, the water of life. 
And then, after the cross, with its dark and 
unfathomable mystery, and the wonder of 
Easter and Pentecost, by fellowship with 
him they entered into the spiritual meaning 
of it all; they learned what it meant to be 
“crucified with Christ,” and to be “risen to¬ 
gether with Christ,” and to be filled with 
his Spirit. So, accepting him as their 

22 


“FOLLOWING” 


Teacher, their Example, and their Friend, he 
became also their Saviour. 

The centuries have come and gone since 
those humble fishermen left their dripping 
nets. Great spiritual truths and laws, how¬ 
ever, do not change. Two and two were four 
■when Adam counted apples in Eden. A 
straight line was the shortest distance be¬ 
tween two points when the animals went 
into the ark. “Blessed are the pure in heart: 
for they shall see God,” is an eternal law. 
And our way of following Jesus is, after all, 
just as simple and just as plain as it was for 
Andrew and for John. He who came to them 
“veiled in flesh” comes to us by his Spirit. 
It is for us, like them, to follow him as 
Teacher, Example, Friend, and Saviour. 


23 


CHAPTER III 


CONVERSION—GOD’S PART 
“INNER PEACE” 

A wholesome Christian woman one time 
remarked in prayer meeting, “When I was 
converted it seemed to me as if God and I 
had become good friends.” 

This inner conviction of divine reality and 
divine approval is the very foundation of 
righteous and cheerful living. To know in 
our souls that “The Lord of hosts is with us; 
the God of Jacob is our refuge,” enables us 
to say spontaneously, “Therefore will not 
we fear .” 1 

This sense of inner peace is the first gift 
the good Father bestows upon us when, in 
response to our turning and following, he 
gives us that wonderful gift we call salva¬ 
tion. 

There are three biographical incidents I 
like to place in parallel columns. The first 
is the story of those two unknown disciples 
italics not in original. 

2 4 




GOD’S PART “INNER PEACE” 


overtaken by Christ on their walk to Em- 
maus on that first strange and wonderful 
Easter. Afterward, when they talked it 
over together, they said, “Did not our hearts 
burn within us while he talked with us by 
the way?” They were charter members of 
the Comrades of the Burning Heart. 

The second incident is the story of the 
quest of good John Wesley for inner peace, 
for an inner sense of divine reality and divine 
approval. When, after years during which 
he discovered the hollowness of mere eccle¬ 
siastical rituals and even the emptiness of 
fussy philanthropy, he at last found the way 
to peace he said, “J felt my heart strangely 
warmed .” 

The third incident is the story of the day 
when Phillips Brooks told Helen Keller about 
God. She said: “I know him, although I 
have never known his name before. I have 
felt his presence. It is like the warmth .” 

This heart-warming carries with it for 
those of us who have sinned—and who has 
not?—the sense of forgiveness of sin, like 
the love of a mother for her naughty little 
child who is sorry, as she cuddles him and 
comforts him. 

It carries with it also a sense of belonging 

25 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


to the family of God, the spirit of adoption 
that gives us courage to “look up and laugh 
and love and lift.” 

The Spirit of God manifests himself to us 
differently in different generations and 
adapts himself to our varying human moods 
and methods. The average modern religious 
experience has less of crisis and more of 
gradual growth than did the typical experi¬ 
ence of a generation or two ago. This does 
not mean that it has less of the divine. A 
sunrise is as divine as a flash of lightning. 
It probably comes about partly as a result 
of the fact that we recognize as spiritual 
and divine those forces and movements that 
we formerly called simply natural. This 
applies to the way by which this inner peace 
comes to seeking folks now. We used to in¬ 
sist that a man must stay on his knees until 
it came. Now we recognize that it may be 
a good thing for him to get up and go to 
work. At any rate, we perceive that in the 
average Christian life the peace of God is a 
growing thing. 

In an old-time class meeting various Chris¬ 
tians were giving their testimony. Some 
were much disturbed because they had lost 
their “witness.” All had fallen into that 

26 


GOD’S PART “INNER PEACE” 


introspective mood which sometimes afflicts 
pious souls. Then an old Scotchman arose 
and said: “Brethren and sisters, I do not 
judge the condition of my health by feel¬ 
ing of my pulse or going to the looking- 
glass and looking at my tongue, I judge 
the condition of my health by my appetite 
for my breakfast and my disposition to 
work .” 

A growing sense of relish for the good and 
the true and a growing eagerness to help 
Christ comfort and save a broken and needy 
world may be God’s best witness to your 
heart that you are his child. 

Indeed, Professor Caleb T. Winchester, 
who has made a careful study of the life of 
Wesley, finds that all his doubts did not 
vanish at the famous prayer meeting when 
he felt his heart strangely warmed. He 
notes the fact that in his diary a few days 
afterward the same old feverish questions 
reappear, and that not until he buried him¬ 
self in evangelistic service and sought to tell 
others of the way to peace did the light shine 
steadily in his own sanctuary. 

However, while we avoid a sickly intro¬ 
spection that looks for strange signs in the 
sky of your soul, instead of finding the glow 

27 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


j 


of spiritual health by food and exercise, we 
need also to remember: 

“Not the labor of my hands 
Can fulfill thy law’s demands.” 

It is the doctrine of all religion, 
back to the dawn of human history, that 
God will reveal himself to the seers and the 
prophets. It is the unique doctrine of Chris¬ 
tianity that God will reveal himself to all. 
“Your sons and your daughters shall proph¬ 
esy.” “Upon the servants and the hand¬ 
maids . . . will I pour out my spirit.” If 
we turn and follow Christ, if we pray to him 
and work with him, he will give us all the 
inner sunlight of his divine peace! 


28 


CHAPTER IV 


CONVERSION—GOD’S PART “INNER 

POWER” 

A certain religious weekly heads its 
“Wise and Otherwise” column with the sig¬ 
nificant statement, “Where origin is known 
credit is given.” I wish I knew the origin 
of the story I am about to tell. Much more 
do I wish I could tell it in the words of the 
tender-hearted father who relates the inci¬ 
dent. A friend of mine heard the story at 
camp meeting. 

A preacher-father had punished his 
naughty little girl. And after the punish¬ 
ment they had knelt together, the big sinner 
and the little sinner, side by side before the 
throne of grace, and asked the forgiveness 
and help of the heavenly Father. As they 
arose from their knees the little lassie, with 
her lovely face still baptized with tears, 
asked her father this question, “Oh, daddy, 
what makes me he so naughty, when I want 
to he so good?” 


29 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


The scientists, the philosophers, and the 
theologians have all tried to answer that ques¬ 
tion ; and if there be one of my readers who 
has not been baffled by it in his attempts to 
live the white life, he is extremely fortunate. 

We are apt to think that those old-fash¬ 
ioned preachers who took so gloomy a view 
of human nature, and who talked of “original 
sin” and “depravity,” were pious pessi¬ 
mists, but, really, they were trying to an¬ 
swer this little girl’s question, when they 
spoke of man as “of his own nature inclined 
to do evil and that continually.” As A. J. 
Hough, the poet-preacher of Vermont, said: 

“Somewhere man had a fall. 

For there are several of him 
Living down upon our street, 

Who, with loving hands to help them, 
Haven’t yet got on their feet.” 

This is not a book of science or theology, 
and I do not propose to even attempt to an¬ 
swer the little girl’s question, but I simply 
remark that because the experience that in¬ 
spired the question is a common human ex¬ 
perience, the problem of living a good life 
is something more and something deeper 
than simply making up the mind to do so. 

30 


“INNER POWER” 


We must have the assistance of that mys~ 
tic, invisible, but real something, beauti¬ 
fully called in the New Testament “the grace 
of God.” 

Mary Willard, the sister of Frances E. 
Willard, whose lovely life has been made im¬ 
mortal in the book, Nineteen Beautiful 
Years , one day wrote in her diary, “God 
commands me to love him with all my heart 
and I think I can do it if I am helped” 

That expression, “if I am helped,” is the 
key to the great spiritual miracle of Chris¬ 
tian experience. What we call the dispen¬ 
sation of the Holy Spirit is really Almighty 
God helping us to be good. 

“He’s the Mighty One of Israel 

Who commanded and ’twas done. 

In his hand is all the power, 

Moving earth and star and sun; 

And yet, just to make me patient 
All his glorious might he will send. 

For the strong one’s my Beloved, 

And the Mighty One’s my Friend.” 

I cannot describe or define or analyze or 
explain the grace of God. It is just as mys¬ 
terious as the “wind that bloweth where it 
listeth,” as electricity, the wonder of mod¬ 
ern science, and just as real a force in life. 

31 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


Human personality is sometimes said to 
consist of the intellect, the emotions, and 
the will. The effect of the grace of God is 
seen on all these “parts of a man.” 

I know of a young barber who was con¬ 
verted in a little Pennsylvania church one 
night and immediately started out for the 
academy and college and is now a Christian 
minister. It is not that a man cannot be a 
Christian barber—there are many of them 
—but the shining of the grace of God upon 
his young mind awoke him intellectually and 
made him find his real place in life. It is 
not without significance that practically all 
our great colleges were founded as Chris¬ 
tian colleges. The human intellect comes to 
its best by the mystic help of the grace of 
God. 

Of course it is in our emotional life that 
the reaction of divine grace is most apparent 
and most immediate. Nor need this seem 
to be strange, for all our great human ex¬ 
periences upon which our homes and our na¬ 
tion are founded center in the heart. Love 
is the greatest thing in the world. No man 
can really live a good life unless the passion 
for goodness has captured his heart. And 
this is possible only when “the love of God 

32 


“INNER POWER” 


is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
Ghost which is given unto us.” 

One of the finest descriptions of what the 
grace of God does to the will was given by 
Frances Willard. She spoke of our wills 
being “fastened to the great driving wheel 
of God’s will omnipotent by bolts of faith 
and bands of prayer.” There is an old con¬ 
secration hymn which pleads, 

“Breathe on me, oh breath of God, 

Until my heart is pure. 

Until with thee I will one will 
To do or to endure.” 

The coming of the grace of God into a 
human life is the great miracle of the gospel. 
It is the “birth from above,” “the life more 
abundant,” “the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

When a man has lived an unspiritual life 
and has shuttered his soul from the light of 
heaven and then “turned and followed” 
Christ, this grace divine often comes in with 
an unforgettable rush that marks the day 
as a red-letter day forever more. 

On the other hand, especially if a man’s 
education has been normal and has included \ 
Christian nurture as well as human culture, 
there may have been less of the lightning 

33 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


flash and more of the sunrise, even as in the 
case of inner peace. Always the important 
thing is, not being able to remember a time 
when you are a stranger to the grace of God, 
but being sure of its miraculous help now as 
a child climbing a steep road is sure of the 
grasp of his father’s hand. 

In the little village near which I was 
spending my vacation a raging fire broke 
out in the barn, spread quickly to a neigh¬ 
boring house, and then threatened the whole 
settlement. House after house fed the hun¬ 
gry flames. Frantic calls for help went to 
neighboring towns and, a kind Providence 
favoring, assistance arrived in time and the 
village was saved. The interesting fact is 
that, like most New England towns, this 
village was located on the banks of a stream 
of water, whose abundance never fails. Yet 
only the timely aid from afar saved a hun¬ 
dred happy homes from destruction because 
there w r as no engine, no way of getting the 
water for use. 

As near all our lives as the stream in the 
village is the unfailing grace of God. As 
desperate as the need of the homes that I 
saw that day, dark beneath the clouds of 
smoke and imminent danger, is the need in 

34 


“INNER POWER” 


our lives. Often, like the negligent village 
folks, we do not make the connection. The 
writer of the Epistle of James says: “Ye 
have not, because ye ask not,” and then he 
says again, “Ye ask and receive not, because 
ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon 
your lusts.” It is his teaching, as it is the 
teaching of Jesus, that an eager, sincere, 
unselfish prayer brings immediate response 
from our Father in heaven. 


35 


CHAPTER V 


CONVERSION—GOD’S PART “THE 
INNER PRESENCE” 

Bishop James M. Thoburn was one time 
accosted with the question, “Surely you do 
not accept the theory that a Jewish teacher 
named Jesus, dead for nearly two thousand 
years, is alive to-day?” The good bishop 
replied smilingly, “7 know he is, for I have 
been talking with him this morning” 

The student of Christian history cannot 
but be impressed with the fact that the out¬ 
standing characteristic of Christian biog¬ 
raphy is that the average Christian is beau¬ 
tifully aware of the real presence of Jesus 
Christ in his life. This fact is not confined 
to any group, any particular station in life, 
or any age. It is the universal fact of the 
Christian centuries. 

It would be easy, if time and space per¬ 
mitted, to multiply examples from Christian 
literature and biography. The supply is 
limitless. We are surrounded with so great 
a cloud of witnesses. 


36 


“THE INNER PRESENCE” 


On the one hand we find Samuel Hadley, 
of Water Street Mission, with his redeemed 
life radiant with the real presence of Christ, 
concerning whom he speaks in winning words 
to those who are as deep in sin as he has been. 
And they in turn become acquainted with the 
same divine comrade. On the other hand 
the peerless Phillips Brooks solemnly and 
gladly declared that the indwelling Christ 
was more real to him than the Christ of his¬ 
tory. 

A little Sunday-school girl just the other 
day told me in the simple, direct speech of 
unspoiled childhood that ever since she had 
gone to Sunday school and learned about 
Jesus she had felt his present helpfulness. 
And she is one of a million! 

Many of us have glad prayer-meeting 
memories of happy-faced common folks sing¬ 
ing 

“His name yields the sweetest perfume, 

And sweeter than music his voice. 

His presence dispelleth my gloom 
And bids all within me rejoice.” 

That it is not confined to prayer-meeting 
enthusiasts, however, is emphasized by the 
wonderful words of Whittier, the Quaker: 

37 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


“We may not climb the heavenly steeps 
To bring the Lord Christ down, 

In vain we search the lowest deeps. 

For him no depths can drown. 

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet 
A present help is he, 

And faith has still its Olivet 
And love its Galilee.” 

That this experience is not the subjective 
creation of any evangelical creed but is a 
conscious fact of the Christian life is em¬ 
phasized by the hymn written by Henry 
Wadsworth Longfellow to be used at the or¬ 
dination of his brother to the Unitarian 
ministry: 

“And evermore beside him in the way, 

The Unseen Christ shall move, 

That he may lean upon his arm and say, 

‘Dost thou, dear Lord, approve?’ 

“Beside him at the marriage feast shall be, 

To make the scene more fair. 

Beside him in the dark Gethsemane 
Of pain and midnight prayer. 

“O holy trust! O endless sense of rest! 

Like the beloved John, 

To lay his head upon the Saviour’s breast. 

And thus to journey on.” 

That ordinary folks, like you and me, may 
live in daily spiritual comradeship with Jesus 

38 


“THE INNER PRESENCE” 


Christ, the Son of God, is the most thrilling 
fact of all life. The “Inner Presence” is 
the summum bonum of the Christian faith. 

Its practical meaning is well illustrated in 
this story by Bishop Thoburn: A little boy 
was sitting with his mother in the railroad 
station and looking at the great station 
light, so different from the little lamps on 
the table at home. It was before the days 
of the universality of electrical illumination. 
The little lad was fascinated with the light. 
He said: “Mother, I would like some of that 
light to take home with me. I think I would 
like a whole hatful of that light to take home 
with me.” “Now,” says the apostolic bishop, 
speaking from his own glad heart, “the only 
way the little boy can have any of that light 
to take home with him is to take it all, lamp, 
wick, oil, and all.” Would you have the 
blessing? Receive into your heart and life 
the Blesser. The apostle well declares, “He 
is our righteousness, our sanctification, and 
our redemption.” And again, “Christ in 
you, the hope of glory.” 

It is by this fellowship with the divine 
Christ that we come to realize something of 
the meaning of the cross. It is here we meet 
it, not in theology, but in life. This Christ 

39 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


o 


who lives with us is the one who died for 
human sin on the tree. He has felt beat 
against his naked heart the awful storm 
caused by the conflict of human sin with di¬ 
vine holiness. 

If we could live in spiritual fellowship 
with Abraham Lincoln, I think we would 
learn to love America and freedom and hu¬ 
manity with a new love. The reaction of the 
war on his noble heart would be shared by 
us. Even so—and more—by fellowship with 
the Christ, who died and rose again, we learn 
to die to sin and, “being risen with Christ,” 
to set our affections on things above. 

Reader, lonely and baffled by the storm of 
life, battling feverishly with sin and tempta¬ 
tion, failing and falling, the good God did 
not mean that you should climb the steep, 
hard path alone. Will you not close this 
book a moment and pray, “Come to my 
heart, Lord Jesus; there is room in my heart 
for thee”? 


40 



CHAPTER VI 


SPIRITUAL HELP—THE BIBLE 

We have thus far been considering the 
beginnings of the Christian life. Let us now 
think of how to keep on. Saints’ persever¬ 
ance is not a donation but an achievement. 

One of the greatest helps to spiritual life 
and growth is the regular reading of the 
Bible. 

The Bible is the most badly abused book 
in the world. We treat it the way some 
churches in the country treat their minis¬ 
ters. The new minister comes to town to 
preach the gospel and build up the kingdom 
of God. He soon discovers that he must 
“run the church,” attend to everything, 
from a leak in the parsonage roof to a 
Christmas sale for the raising of his own 
salary. At the end of the year the members 
of the official board wonder why his sermons 
lack point and preparation. 

The purpose of the Bible is to teach us 
religion, to nourish our spiritual lives. We 

41 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


try to make it a universal history, a manual 
of infallible science, and many other things. 

Even when we read the Bible for our soul’s 
profit, we are apt to lazily select a book or 
chapter at random, isolate it from its con¬ 
nection, and violate all laws of literary 
study in its consideration and its applica¬ 
tion. 

The Bible is a collection of writings from 
many generations of men who lived close to 
God and by the inspiration of his Spirit re¬ 
ceived the message from God for the people 
of their time, or were able to see with clear¬ 
ness the hand of God in the events of con¬ 
temporary history. These writings came to 
a natural climax in the gospel of Jesus 
Christ and the application of that gospel as 
given in the epistles. “God, who at sundry 
times and in divers manners spake in time 
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath 
. . . spoken unto us by his Son.” 

The Bible should, therefore, be read with 
discrimination. We should remember that 
the chapter we are reading was not written 
primarily for us. Was it written before 
Christ came and brought life and immor¬ 
tality to light through the gospel? If so, 
of course, it was adapted to the people to 

42 


THE BIBLE 


whom it first came. Let us find out all we 
can about those people, see what they had 
in common with us, and so find God’s mes¬ 
sage in the chapter for our lives. 

In the second place, the Bible should be 
read with imagination . Every once in 
awhile some dogmatic disciple affirms with 
much earnestness that he believes in taking 
the Bible literally. The “literal” meaning 
of “literally” is “by letter”; and our Great 
Teacher tells us that “the letter killeth.” 
And he was speaking at that time to some 
disciples who were puzzled over the literal 
application of one of his teachings. 

I heard of an old Scotchman who tried 
to interpret Shakespeare literally. He said, 
“Shakespeare said, ‘Uneasy lies the head 
that wears a crown.’ Bobby Burns would 
have known better than that. He would 
know that a man would not wear his crown 
when he was lying down at night, but hang 
it on the bedpost.” 

When we insist that the Bible should not 
be taken literally but read with imagination, 
we are simply insisting that it is literature 
and not a cookbook, and that we should ap¬ 
ply to it the same principles of interpreta¬ 
tion that we apply to great literature. 

43 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 




Moreover, we need to remember that it is 
Oriental literature, and that the Oriental 
lived in the land of poetry and parable and 
understood naturally and easily the Syrian 
Christ, who said so often, “The kingdom of 
heaven is like unto” 

The illustration of all this given by Pro¬ 
fessor Borden P. Bowne is timely. Take 
that passage, “He shall cover thee with his 
feathers, and under his wings shalt thou 
trust.” Taken literally, we read of a God 
with wings and feathers. Read with imag¬ 
ination, in the light of the Spirit that giveth 
light, we become tenderly aware of the in¬ 
finite brooding in the heart of Almighty 
God, and our hearts find peace and rest 
therein. 

This does not mean that the Bible is a 
mere picturebook. We are given in its won¬ 
drous pages the message of God in real 
events, natural and supernatural, and in real 
lives, and especially in the real life of Jesus 
Christ, who died for our sins and rose again. 
But always the important thing is not the 
historical accuracy of an event but its spir¬ 
itual significance for our souls now. 

Finally, we need to remember that Jesus 
said, “Ye search the scriptures, because ye 

44 


THE BIBLE 


think that in them ye have eternal life; and 
these are they which bear witness of me.” 
The important thing about the Scriptures 
is that, like all the roads which led to Rome, 
they lead to Christ. If some Old Testa¬ 
ment seer, in getting a message for his time 
—and so for all time—in the giving of that 
message, since he is human and a man of 
his age, mingles with his message ideas and 
ideals that are unworthy, that need not 
bother us. Let us, rather, look in the mes¬ 
sage for that about it which enables us, as 
it enabled him, to take one step toward 
Christ. And let us take that step with him. 
Eternal life comes not from the Scriptures 
but from Christ. Even the early Israelites 
drank not from the Law of Moses, but from 
that Rock which followed them, and “That 
rock was Christ.” The value of the Scrip¬ 
tures is that they testify of him. 

The great need of us all is not to criticize 
the Scriptures—think of criticizing Niag¬ 
ara! Not to defend the Scriptures—think 
of defending a sunset! Our need is to read 
the Scriptures, discriminatingly, with imag¬ 
ination and an eager quest for Christ. 

“He that walketh with wise men shall be 
wise.” If we bring to our daily task a soul 

45 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 




that has climbed Sinai with Moses—that has 
seen the Good Shepherd with David, that 
has caught the solemn nobility of naked 
righteousness with Amos, that has learned 
to live and love with Paul, “A servant of 
Jesus Christ,” our daily task is ennobled 
and we, ourselves, “grow in grace, and in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ.” 

Bishop John H. Vincent was wont to re¬ 
mark that the Bible is a river from which a 
bird may drink and in which an elephant 
can swim. The crudest convert—and we 
are all in the kindergarten—may under¬ 
stand enough of the Bible to find in it daily 
food. 

Read your daily chapter, then study into 
the wonderful deeps of divine revelation as 
long as you live on earth—and beyond. 


46 


CHAPTER VII 


SPIRITUAL HELP—PRAYER 

A fine Christian gentleman, who is a mem¬ 
ber of the Episcopal Church, was elected 
president of the Young Men’s Christian As¬ 
sociation in a certain city. He politely ques¬ 
tioned the propriety of the extemporaneous 
prayer with which the meetings of the di¬ 
rectors opened. He was a lawyer, used to 
the formalities of court, and he said he 
would not think of coming into the presence 
of a king, a president, or a governor, to 
present a petition without a carefully pre¬ 
pared speech. 

I do not believe this good churchman had 
quite caught the message of the New Tes¬ 
tament about prayer. In response to the 
request of the disciples, “Teach us to pray,” 
Jesus said, “When you pray, say, Our 
Father”—not King of kings, not Creator, 
and Judge, not even Almighty God, although 
all these he is, but “Our Father.” I doubt 
if the children of Theodore Roosevelt ad- 

47 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


dressed him as “Mr. President,” or came 
into his presence with prepared speeches. 
The divine Christ said, “I have called you 
friends.” 

The spiritual approach in prayer, even 
in public prayer, but especially in private 
prayer, is like a child coming eagerly to his 
father, like a friend coming to his daily 
comrade. 

Alfred Tennyson in “The Higher Pan¬ 
theism” has some lines that give the philos¬ 
ophy, the purpose and the method of Chris¬ 
tian prayer: 

“Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and spirit with 
spirit can meet— 

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands 
and feet.” 

There are puzzling questions one may 
ask about prayer for material blessings. I 
believe these questions can be satisfactorily 
answered. There is no question, however, 
about the daily prayer for spiritual help as 
part of spiritual comradeship. It is the 
logical result, the inevitable conclusion of a 
conviction of the Inner Presence. If he is 
with us, of course we will speak to him, and 
“spirit with spirit” will meet. 

48 


PRAYER 


Some find it helpful to have a place for 
prayer. Jesus spoke about entering into 
the closet and shutting the door. I knew a 
dear old class-leader who told me of an old 
apple tree that was his trysting place. The 
value of a particular place, however, is only 
that it may help us to regularity and con¬ 
centration. 

“On land or sea, what matters where? 

Where Jesus is ’tis heaven there.” 

Many find it helpful to have a definite 
time for private prayer. John R. Mott, 
whose name is known around the world, says 
that next to the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit, he owes his spiritual success to the 
observance of the “Morning Watch”; that 
is, taking a little time in the early part of 
the day, “while the dew is still on the roses,” 
for prayer and spiritual communion. A 
large number of earnest and efficient Chris¬ 
tian workers could give a similar testimony. 
Get the habit in the early part of the day of 
turning your eyes to the eternal hills of God, 
and you will find strength and peace. 

I was speaking in an Epworth League 
meeting about the Morning Watch and a 
woman arose and said something like this: 

49 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


“How can my husband keep the Morning 
Watch? He gets up early, prepares hur¬ 
riedly for his work, takes an early car and 
is away and at it before the most of you 
who are advocating the Morning Watch are 
out of bed.” I got to thinking about that 
woman’s husband! And I remembered that 
one day when I was miles away from home 
in a distant town and a little homesick with¬ 
al, the ragman drove along the street. The 
badge of his profession was a row of cow 
bells across the rear of his wagon, that an¬ 
nounced his approach. And anon in my 
mind I left that distant town and saw the 
pasture hills of my old home, with the night- 
hawks circling against the golden sky and 
the cows slowly winding their way home¬ 
ward, and myself a barefoot boy driving 
them, and mother in the home waiting for me. 
My body still stood by the curb watching 
the ragman, my mind journeyed far across 
the acres and the years at the summons of 
the cow bell. So that woman’s husband 
hanging by a strap in the car, his dinner 
pail in his hand, can come perhaps for one 
swift moment by his mind into the presence 
of the King of kings, his Father and his 
Friend, and get help and strength and joy. 

50 


PRAYER 


So many busy people have to do much of 
their praying like that! 

I remember that Jesus said once in a pub¬ 
lic prayer, “Father, I thank thee thou hast 
heard me. I knew that thou hearest me 
always; but because of the people which 
stand by I said it.” This is a revelation of 
the spiritual habit of Jesus, of the constant 
silent communion with the Father like a hid¬ 
den stream which glances out into the open 
sunlight for a moment, “because of the peo¬ 
ple which stand by.” We should follow in 
his steps. 

I think that also, like him, we should all 
of us sometimes pray publicly “for the sake 
of the people,” and for our own sakes also. 
It is a helpful confession of spiritual de¬ 
pendence and shows others the trail to power 
and to peace. 

As we continue to be “with Christ in the 
school of prayer” we find our petitions 
more and more taking the form of interces¬ 
sion for others. 

Sometimes the question is asked why we 
should pray our Divine Father to help and 
bless others when we know he is already ea¬ 
ger to do so if they will let him. Perhaps 
the best answer is the example of Christ 

51 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


and his apostles, a concrete answer to an 
abstract question. Christ, who knew the 
mind of the Father, prayed earnestly for 
poor Peter, that his faith fail not, for his 
disciples and for those who should believe on 
God through their word. Paul in prison 
made out a prayer list of those of whom he 
made mention when he prayed. 

The mood of prayer is so holy a mood that 
it must blossom into unselfish intercession. 
We do not know enough about the telepathy 
of souls, or about the spiritual forces let 
loose by the effectual fervent prayer, but 
we do know that such a prayer “availeth 
much.” 

It may be that, just as God’s way of grow¬ 
ing a garden is by the cooperation of a man 
with a hoe, so God’s way of saving souls is 
by the cooperation of the man on his knees. 

I do not need to urge you to pray for 
others. If you pray at all, really pray, 
really commune with the Christ, he will share 
with you his holy passion, and you will find 
yourself saying naturally, 

“Help me to live from day to day 
In such a self-forgetful way 
That even when I kneel to pray 
My prayer shall be for others.” 

52 


CHAPTER VIII 


SPIRITUAL HELP—THE CHURCH 

Evangelist Wm. A. Sunday was one time 
asked the question, “Can’t I be a Christian 
and not join the church?” He replied, “Cer¬ 
tainly. You do not have to get on a boat 
to go to Europe—the swimming is good.” 

The church is one of God’s most effective 
helps for Christian living. It is true that 
there are many good Christians who are 
not members of the church. It is also true 
that some members of the church are not 
good Christians. Nevertheless, the sensible 
course of procedure for any normal Chris¬ 
tian is to connect himself with the organ¬ 
ization that exists for the promotion of 
Christianity, assume his share of the respon¬ 
sibility, and receive his share of the benefits. 

We hear much said about religion’s being 
an individual affair, a private matter between 
the human soul and the Infinite Oversoul 
and divorced from all organized institutions. 
It is quite a popular performance in current 

53 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


literature to eulogize religion, say compli¬ 
mentary things about Jesus and criticize the 
church. 

It is true that a man’s religious life is his 
own personal attainment. No institution 
can grind out Christians like Ford cars. It 
is also true that intellectual culture is a per¬ 
sonal attainment. It is surprising some¬ 
times how an individual can be exposed to 
the finest institutions for the promotion of 
culture and still remain personally immune. 
Nevertheless, intellectual culture—indeed, 
civilization itself—is a result of a human 
movement, a social organization. The peo¬ 
ple who are isolated from this movement, like 
some of our own mountaineers, are back¬ 
ward intellectually and strangers to the mes¬ 
sage of their own mountain. 

It is even so with the making of Chris¬ 
tians. The organized church brings us 
Christianity. It is an historical fact that 
the church gave us the Bible, and it is a 
present-day fact that the church gives us by 
preaching and teaching the finest interpre¬ 
tation of the Bible. 

George Eliot says that much of the mes¬ 
sage of our conscience is determined by what 
good people think of us. Religious and 

54 



THE CHURCH 


moral life is a social affair. We learn how 
to be good, we learn about Christ by living 
in organized fellowship with others who are 
trying to be good and who also know the 
love of Christ. Regarding that love the great 
apostle prays that we may comprehend it 
“with all the saints” 

The sacraments are both symbols of grace 
and a means of grace. Just so the flag is a 
symbol of patriotism and a promoter of 
patriotism. Our children who are taught 
to salute it at the same time pledge alle¬ 
giance to the republic for which it stands. 
When one is baptized that baptism is an out¬ 
ward sign of an inward grace, but that in¬ 
ward grace may be greatly enriched by the 
loyalty, the consecration, and the faith ex¬ 
pressed in the act of baptism, and thus the 
prayer of the ritual may be answered, that 
those “being baptized with water, may also 
be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 

The same principle applies to holy com¬ 
munion. Zwingli and Calvin were both 
right. One said the sacrament was simply a 
memorial service. The other said it was a 
means of spiritual communion. Of course, 
any service of memory of the life and passion 
of our Lord that is real opens our souls to 

55 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


the incoming of the breath of the Spirit and 
so becomes a means of spiritual communion. 

Some people have intellectual difficulties 
about joining the church. Their brains are 
bothered by the creed! What they need is 
imagination. The creeds are not mathe¬ 
matical propositions, but are an attempt by 
human language, some of it symbolical, to 
express the great spiritual facts of the 
Christian faith. Probably no two people 
interpret them the same. The very same 
words carry different meanings to different 
minds. 

Take that phrase, “the resurrection of the 
body,” in the Apostles’ Creed. To one it is 
a declaration of faith in a literal restoration 
on that day, “Toward which the whole crea¬ 
tion moves,” of this body in which we now 
tabernacle. To another, it is a symbolical 
way of stating the immortality of all our 
human life through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. 
Does it matter which as far as our practical 
life is concerned? Can we say that one is 
more honest or conscientious than the other 
in reciting the creed? 

If a man is essentially and experimentally 
a Christian and has spiritual imagination, 
he will find he is able to interpret the great 

56 


THE CHURCH 


creeds in terms of his own life and will not 
care much about changing them any more 
than he will about changing the words of 
“Sunset and Evening Star,” because they 
are astronomically inaccurate. 

This chapter may come to some one who 
is a sincere Christ follower but outside the 
church. One reason I would urge you to 
come in is to have a share in the task. In a 
war isolated shooting is far from being as 
effective as an organized military campaign. 
All good soldiers of Jesus Christ belong in 
the army of the Church of God. In working 
at a job the workman who becomes part of 
the gang, doing his share under the direction 
of the overseer, is the man whose work is ef¬ 
fective. We are workers together with 
Christ in building the Alabaster City un¬ 
dimmed by human tears. 

It may seem that I have wandered a little 
from my subject, which was to discuss how 
the church is our spiritual help, but the most 
vital way the church helps us spiritually is 
by giving us a share in its holy task. What 
our souls need is work—work for others, 
work with others, work for Christ, work with 
Christ. This the church gives us. 

A little girl was talking wdth her grand- 

57 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


father. She said, “Grandpa, are you a 
Methodist?” 

“No,” was his reply. 

“Are you a Baptist?” 

“No.” 

“Are you a Presbyterian?” 

“No.” 

“But you are a Christian,” his little ques¬ 
tioner insisted. 

“Yes, my dear, I hope I am.” 

She thought a few moments and said, 
“Grandpa, I ’vise you to get in somewhere.” 

And so I do you, my outside friends. 
There are more reasons why you should 
come into any one of the churches the little 
girl mentioned—and many others—than 
there are why you should stay out. You 
need the instruction, the fellowship, and the 
task. 


58 


CHAPTER IX 


CHRISTIAN SERVICE—OUR LIVES 

The old-time robbers we were accustomed 
to imitate in our boyhood games used to de¬ 
mand “Your money or your life," The 
Christian call to consecration is to give to 
the service of Christ our lives and our money. 

This might seem like a severe demand, and 
not in harmony with the infinite love of the 
All-Father, were it not for the fact that just 
such a consecration brings the greatest 
spiritual enrichment to our own lives. Jesus 
used the comparison of the grain of wheat, 
which unless it dies, “abideth alone,” but 
when buried in the ground yields a golden 
harvest. Even so the consecration of life 
and money, denying ourselves, taking up our 
cross and following the unselfish Christ, 
brings to our lives the spiritual wealth and 
power God meant us to have. 

I used to wish that Paul had said “lives” 
instead of “bodies” in his call to consecra¬ 
tion in the Epistle to the Romans. He said, 
“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the 

59 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


mercies of God, that ye present your bodies 1 
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
which is your spiritual service.” It seemed 
to me as if to speak of the presentation of 
“lives” had a more dignified sound than 
“bodies,” especially when you are talking 
of spiritual service. But my experience in 
the pastorate has taught me the rare wit of 
Paul. At prayer meeting, for instance, it 
takes “bodies” to fill empty chairs! I have 
had good people say to me: “I was sorry not 
to be at the service the other evening. I was 
there in spirit.” Without questioning the 
accuracy of their glib statement, I affirm 
that what that religious service needed was 
the presence of their “bodies.” The great 
need of the Christian Church is an habeas 
corpus consecration. 

Frances Havergal, in her exquisite conse¬ 
cration hymn, beautifully shows how our 
various “members and parts” may all share 
the service and the glory of entire consecra¬ 
tion. The human hand has such limited 
powers to do deeds of Christly service. 

“Take my hands and let them move 
At the impulse of thy love.’* 

’Italics not in original. 

60 



OUR LIVES 


Human feet may carry us on so many 
Christly errands. 

“Take my feet and let them be 
Swift and beautiful for thee.” 

Human speech! To this the gospel was 
first intrusted. Upon this still depends not 
only its public proclamation but its per¬ 
sonal advertisement. 

“Take my lips and let them be 
Filled with messages from thee.” 

So may we present our bodies a living sac¬ 
rifice, which is our spiritual service. 

I saw once this expressive slogan—“Christ 
alone can save the world, but Christ cannot ^ 
save the world alone.” Perhaps this may not 
be true in the absolute sense—I do not know 
—but it is certainly true that just as in na¬ 
ture and in science, in the realm of human 
invention man is a worker together with 
God, so in bringing in his kingdom of right¬ 
eousness and peace and in bringing to in¬ 
dividuals eternal salvation, Christ is depend¬ 
ing upon human cooperation. We must not 
—we will not—fail him. And I heard a 
voice saying, “Whom shall I send, and who 
will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; 

61 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


send me.” Not only the New Testament 
church, but the Christian civilization of the 
centuries was born when Paul on his knees 
in the Damascus road called out, “Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do?” 

I heard a Grand Army veteran one time 
say: “Sometimes people ask me if I ever 
killed anybody in the war. I do not know. 
I was simply there in the ranks and did my 
part.” And to all of us the first call is to 
serve in the ranks, to keep going those or¬ 
ganizations and institutions which leaven 
this world with the leaven of the gospel. 

I hope this little book may come to some 
one out in the country who is helping to keep 
painted white some steeple among the hills, 
who is helping to carry on some little rural 
church, the music of whose calling bells 
breaks pleasantly on the quiet of the Sab¬ 
bath morning. Wherever you are, if you are 
doing sacrificially and songfully your part 
to keep “going” the Sunday schools, the 
Missionary Society, those institutions and 
organizations that spread the gospel of 
Jesus through all of human life, like the 
Grand Army veteran, you are filling your 
place in the ranks. 

The Rev. D. B. Holt, D.D., for many 

62 


OUR LIVES 


years a district superintendent in Maine, 
once wisely remarked, “Our trouble in the 
church is not too much machinery but not 
enough operators.” It ought to be said 
with emphasis that the greatest field of 
Christian service is the Christian home. 

My mother, of precious memory, one time 
attended an evangelistic convention with me 
and was troubled. The speakers in their en¬ 
thusiasm pointed out many daily oppor¬ 
tunities for evangelistic effort, and my 
mother, a lovely member of the old-fashioned 
reserved and quiet generation, was troubled. 
She had done so little work of the sort out¬ 
lined by the earnest speaker. To comfort 
her I said: “Motherchen, you have given a 
boy to the Christian ministry. Don’t worry 
because you have not talked religion to the 
milkman.” Let it be understood that I be¬ 
lieve in talking about Christ tactfully and 
helpfully to the milkman, but infinitely 
greater is the evangelistic opportunity and 
achievement of consecrated motherhood. 

The opportunity for Christian service, 
however, is bigger than the privilege of tak¬ 
ing our place in the ranks of the regular 
Christian organizations. Some of the rich¬ 
est opportunities are totally independent of 

63 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


organizations and institutions. I do not 
know the full theological significance of the 
incarnation, of the eternal Christ of glory 
coming down and being “pleased as man with 
man to dwell,” but the practical significance 
is this: by the gospel of friendship God 
started out to win the world. He came down 
and got acquainted. This world, our coun¬ 
try, our city, our neighborhood—all these 
are populated with folks, folks who are so 
made that they need the friendly hand, the 
friendly word, and the friendly heart! Very 
few of us are commissioned as prophets to 
call down woes on their sins ! Most of us are 
set down among them with the gospel, the 
good news. If we can be friends to them in 
the name of the Great Friend, and so lead 
them to love him, we are doing the finest type 
of Christian service “in Christ’s stead.” 


64 


CHAPTER X 


CHRISTIAN SERVICE—OUR MONEY 

One of the most persistent and pernicious 
heresies is the idea that money is filthy lucre 
and poverty per se a means of grace. Jesus 
never said that it was impossible for rich 
men to enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
He said it was hard work for them to enter. 
Then he hastened to add that it was possible 
with God. Hard work and God! That is a 
good combination in preparing for college 
or for heaven. 

The reason that money becomes filthy 
lucre is because it is handled by unclean 
hands. Clean money is never germy. 

Money is the concrete expression of day’s 
work—of sweat of body and brain, of patient 
study and tireless toil on the part of indi¬ 
viduals, of accumulated skill of hand and 
mind by families and groups. 

I do not pray for money. I see so many 
who have less than my little that I would be 
ashamed to do that. To all to whom it may 

65 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


concern, however, I am frank to affirm that 
I would like some more. 

I have never been pastor of a church 
that was not suffering for more money. 
The capacity of the average church to min¬ 
ister, to build up the kingdom of God, to 
save souls, could, humanly speaking, be 
doubled if it had more money. I acknowl¬ 
edge with eager gratitude that the big things 
that count in the work of God are the ones 
that money cannot buy, but I am profoundly 
convinced that the church needs desperately 
many things that money can buy. If this is 
true in the home field, it is still more tragi¬ 
cally evident where lonely missionaries face 
the challenge of the frontier. 

The Christian doctrine of money and its 
use is based not on the worthlessness of 
money but on its worth. Our discussion of 
the subject here has to do with its relation 
to the individual Christian life. It ought to 
be said in passing, however, that the Chris¬ 
tian thinker must be eagerly interested in 
every effort to so organize society that there 
shall be the fairest distribution of money 
that is possible. Dives in purple and fine 
linen, with Lazarus at the gate in rags and 
sores, is not the Christian ideal. 

66 


OUR MONEY 


Since I know the value of money and ap¬ 
preciate its worth as a disciple of the Master 
who taught the Golden Rule, I should be not 
only eager to have my share but should be 
equally eager to see that my brother has his 
share, even if I have to sacrifice therefor 
myself. 

We have used much the word “stewards” 
in our discussion of the Christian man and 
his money. I suggest that our modern word 
“trustee” conveys the same scriptural mean¬ 
ing in modern language. The trustees of a 
school, for instance, realize that they are 
responsible to hold and spend the funds in¬ 
trusted to them for the benefit of the school. 
The money that comes to us individually, in 
the order of Divine Providence, is given to 
our keeping and spending as trustees. We 
are to so use it as to make our own lives as 
fruitful and fine as possible and do our share 
in helping the world. 

How to divide our income between these 
two responsibilities is one of the first prac¬ 
tical problems we have to face as Christians 
and trustees . 

Both Scripture and history suggest 
“tithing,” the laying aside of one tenth 
of each dollar received for Christ and his 

67 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


work, as a good starting-point for the aver¬ 
age man. 

In the old days when Israel went to school 
to God, and when so many of the things that 
happened aforetime happened for our sake, 
or, at least, were written down for our sake, 
the people were told to give one seventh of 
their days and one tenth of their increase to 
worship and to God. 

It is interesting to notice how that plan 
fits harmoniously into modern human life. 
The calendar protects the Sabbath, and our 
modern monetary system, particularly in 
America, makes it easy to think in terms of 
the tenth. The prophets emphasized this 
demand for the tithe, and there is good evi¬ 
dence to think that it was commonly prac¬ 
ticed in the early church. 

The important thing, however, is that 
wherever it is practiced in the modern 
church the peculiar blessing of the Lord 
seems to go with it. It is a concrete recog¬ 
nition of our trusteeship. The churches that 
tithe and the individuals that tithe find a 
certain steadiness in the glow of their spirit¬ 
ual life, and even of their material develop¬ 
ment, that reminds one of the closing promise 
connected with the old prophetic challenge, 

68 


OUR MONEY 


“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, 
. . . and prove me now herewith, saith the 
Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows 
of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that 
there shall not be room enough to receive it.” 




69 


CHAPTER XI 


THE CHRISTIAN VISION—THE 
VICTORIOUS LIFE 

A young girl came home from school the 
day of examination. Her father asked her, 
“What success did you have?” 

She replied, merrily, “Z think 1 got by.” 

Her father was a wise man and said, “Did 
you notice the Phi Beta Kappa key Doctor 
Tasker has on his watchchain?” 

“Yes, daddy.” 

“Do you suppose he got that by just 
getting by ?” 

The daughter says that question was the 
beginning of a new era in her life as a 
student. 

Of course the difficulty with Phi Beta 
Kappa keys is that, in the nature of the 
case, they have to be awarded according to 
standards that are to a certain degree ar¬ 
bitrary and artificial. That is probably 
why so many who possess them find they will 
not always fit the keyhole of the door to 

70 


THE VICTORIOUS LIFE 


success. If they could be awarded accord¬ 
ing to fidelity of intellectual effort, it would 
be better. But, of course, only God could 
award them in that case. 

There are degrees of Christian attainment. 
There are Phi Beta Kappa Christians and 
some, alas! who seem content to simply “get 
by.” The Phi Beta Kappa Christian has 
a key—a spiritual key which unlocks for 
him the storehouse of grace—riches and 
glory for every time of need. And God, who 
reads the heart, gives the key. 

The term “victorious life” that has come 
into recent use is a happy one. It is rather 
better than the expression “Christian per¬ 
fection,” because the latter, unless carefully 
explained, seems to mean the end of growth. 
The “victorious life” means that at just the 
place on the long road where you are now 
you may, by the help of Christ, get victory 
over every temptation that would keep you 
from doing your best—from being your best. 

A New England minister gives this leaf 
from his spiritual biography: He became 
perplexed in his Christian life and his soul 
was athirst for “the fullness of the blessing 
of the gospel of Christ.” He rode out from 
the seminary to Mount Tabor, where Mother 

71 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


FitzGerald was conducting a camp meeting. 
He told that godly woman his distress and 
his longing. At her suggestion he knelt 
down on the grass in the tent and repeated 
after her from his heart this prayer: 

“I give all of me to Jesus. 

I take all of Jesus to me.” 

And into his heart there came an abiding 
sense of power and of joy. 

I think in some of our discussion of the 
Christian life in these days of feverish ac¬ 
tivity we are apt to dwell simply on the first 
phrase of that prayer. The “victorious life” 
depends not so much upon what we do for 
Christ as upon what we let him do for us, 
and in us, and through us. 

There is one New Testament word that is 
beautifully expressive. It is that word “let.” 
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in 
Christ Jesus.” “Let the word of Christ 
dwell in you richly.” The meaning is that 
God is eager to give us complete moral and 
spiritual victory, just where we are. He 
will not intrude himself upon us. He real¬ 
izes that we must work out our own salva¬ 
tion and fight our own good fight of faith. 
He is much more sensible than some fussy 

72 


THE VICTORIOUS LIFE 


human parents who will not let their chil¬ 
dren live their own lives. But when we de¬ 
liberately desire to be Christlike, and turn 
to him for help, as soon as we will let him he 
comes to our assistance with a glad rush. 

The late Dr. Benjamin Adams, who was 
a shining pathfinder to the deeper Christian 
life, used to remark that we advance by a 
series of crises toward God. When we look 
at our lives frankly and see well our weak 
spots, and then, in the spirit of the eager 
seeker at Mount Tabor, settle it forever that 
we will let Christ give us the victory, we be¬ 
gin the “victorious life,” and 

“Life has no need but Jesus fills it, 

Life has no storm but Jesus stills it.” 


73 


CHAPTER XII 


THE CHRISTIAN VISION—“THE 
ALABASTER CITY” 

“Oh beautiful for patriot’s dream 
That sees beyond the years 
Thine Alabaster Cities gleam 
Undimmed by human tears.” 

These two chapters, the one before this 
and this one, should be read together. 
Bishop Francis A J. McConnell tells of a man 
who said he never could understand the doc¬ 
trine of entire sanctification very well, but 
made up his mind he would sanctify every¬ 
thing he could lay his hands on. Sainthood 
and service are meant to go together. The 
“victorious life,” made possible for us by 
the grace of Christ, like our material or in¬ 
tellectual wealth, is not merely for personal 
enjoyment. God helps us to be good and 
glad in order that we may work with him in 
building a good, glad world, the “Alabaster 
Cities” “undimmed by human tears.” Unless 
we go to work at this divine task and keep 

74 



“THE ALABASTER CITY” 


at work at it, we will lose both our goodness 
and our gladness. The hermit cell and the 
monastery bear melancholy witness to this 
truth. 

On the other hand, the more we work at 
it, the more the depth both of our good¬ 
ness and our enjoyment increases while we 
work. 

The human race has always had two 
golden dreams, the dream of a beautiful yes¬ 
terday and the dream of a lovely to-morrow. 
It is the unique characteristic of Christian¬ 
ity that it sets us to work to bring in the 
glad to-morrow, building the Alabaster City 
in sections. 

There are two distinct doctrines as to how 
the kingdom of God is to be set up on the 
earth. These are popularly known as the 
premillennial and the postmillennial. Ac¬ 
cording to the former, it is to be brought 
about by the personal advent of Jesus Christ 
in glory and power. He comes before the 
golden age, early in the morning of it. In¬ 
deed, his coming makes the morning. 

According to the latter, the silent real 
work of the Spirit of Christ in the heart of 
humanity—his Real Presence—here and 
now will eventually bring in his kingdom of 

75 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


righteousness and peace. His coming in 
personal glory will be to look over and re¬ 
ward the good work we have done in helping 
the Good Spirit make a good world. 

There need be no conflict as far as prac¬ 
tical work is concerned between these two 
views. If he comes, soon or late, “in the 
clouds” to set up his kingdom, at least he 
has not arrived yet! And he certainly would 
want us to do the best we can to get as many 
things ready for his coming as possible. If 
we are premillennialists, our song should be 
the plantation song of the old Negro cotton 
picker: 

‘‘There’s a King and Captain high, 

And he dwells beyond the sky, 

And he’ll find me picking cotton 
When he comes.” 

There are several stanzas, the last of 
which ends with exquisite words: 

“And I’ll kneel among the cotton 
When he comes.” 

The statement that Whittier places in the 
mouth of Abraham Davenport, when the fa¬ 
mous dark day of 1780 settled down over the 
Connecticut Legislature, is always timely: 

76 


“THE ALABASTER CITY” 


“This well may be 

The Day of Judgment which the world awaits; 
But be it so or not, I only know 
My present duty, and my Lord’s command, 

To occupy till he come. So at the post 
Where he hath set me in his providence, 

I choose, for one, to meet him face to face— 

No faithless servant frightened from my task, 
But ready when the Lord of harvest calls; 

And, therefore, with all reverence, I would say, 
Let God do his work; we will see to ours.” 


On the other hand, if we are postmillen- 
nialists, we need also to diligently devote 
ourselves to our task. We can never drift 
into the golden age nor stumble upon a mil¬ 
lennium. Whatever our theory about the 
future, we are called now to be workers to¬ 
gether with God in building the walls of the 
Alabaster City opposite where we live. 

Allowing that the supreme emphasis of the 
gospel is upon the power of divine grace and 
free human choice, nevertheless it takes no 
argument at all to prove that a man is more 
apt to live a Christian life if he lives in a 
Christian home. Therefore, let us multiply 
their number. And he is more apt to have 
a Christian home if he lives in a Christian 
community, a community whose social and 
industrial life is organized according to the 

77 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


principles of the Golden Rule and permeated 
with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And a 
Christian community needs for its environ¬ 
ment a Christian nation! And a Christian 
nation needs a Christian world. 

You see, then, how our task grows on us 
while we toil. We cannot deal with souls 
alone, because they are not alone. We must 
deal with life. There is room for all our 
varieties of gifts, graces, and usefulness. 
Who is there among us who has not the tal¬ 
ent of making domestic life more wholesome, 
or amusements sweeter and cleaner, or busi¬ 
ness more in harmony with the music of 
human values? 

Once upon a time in a little village Sun¬ 
day school the committee tried a new scheme 
of decoration at a Children’s Day concert. 
Instead of banking the platform with butter¬ 
cups and daisies, they banked it with chil¬ 
dren. All the members of the elementary 
grades were given little chairs and placed 
up among the beams. I never saw lovelier 
decorations. They made me want to 
cry. 

One little lassie came in late and sat down 
by me. She had been ill with some childish 
disease and had not been at the rehearsals. 

78 


“THE ALABASTER CITY” 


I said to her, “Aren’t you to sit with the 
others ?” 

She smiled bashfully and replied, “I 
haven’t any piece.” 

I explained that all the little children 
were to sit there, but, like many older peo¬ 
ple, she could not grasp the new idea, and 
only shook her head and said, “Yes, I have 
no piece.” Presently, as she watched all 
her playmates and friends sitting there on 
the platform, she felt the call of her kind. 
I think they arose to sing or did something 
that trumpeted to her soul. At any rate, 
she turned to me, her dignified pastor, and 
said, “By Jiminy, I am going up there,” 
and trotted up with the crowd. 

I wish I could make all my readers see the 
fine groups of young people all over the 
land who have signed up for Christian serv¬ 
ice. Some of them are to become ministers 
and missionaries. Some are to be teachers 
and nurses; some are to be directors of re¬ 
ligious education and directors of recreation, 
and some are to be business and professional 
men, and some are to be wives and mothers. 
But they are to enter those callings where 
Providence seems to open to them the door, 
not for selfish gain nor in the listless mood 

79 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


of mere drudgery. They have caught the 
vision of the golden age! They are building 
on the Alabaster City. 

May I suggest to you a new sentence of 
consecration? It is this: “By Jimmy”— 
which being interpreted, means “with all my 
heart”—“I am going up there with them.” 


80 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE JOYOUS LIFE 

I believe God wants us to be glad! Once 
in the old Epworth League days, when it was 
my privilege to lead a prayer meeting, the 
subject was “The Christian’s Joy.” I spoke 
eagerly in the exuberance of my young 
Christian life and victory, and when I had 
finished asked a Salvation Army soldier, who 
was present, to sing a rather rollicking gos¬ 
pel song about “Joy.” Thereupon arose a 
very pious man and begged to differ with me. 
He said that we are not supposed to be 
happy here. This is the vale of tears. Here 
we have tribulations. The full joy comes 
after we enter the pearly gates. “It is 
true,” he said, “that we have a peace in our 
hearts, and sometimes”—and here his face 
became radiant with a glow that belied his 
melancholy words—“we get a foretaste of 
the glory to come.” 

Of course what he said was just as true 
to him as my eager remarks w r ere to me. You 
remember the old story of the two children 

81 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


coming in from the garden. One exclaimed 
with tears, “Oh, mother, the rosebushes all 
have thorns on them!” 

The other said with glad surprise, “Why, 
mother, the thorn bushes all have roses on 
them!” They both spoke the truth. So did 
the pious brother who rebuked the young 
man who led the meeting. Nevertheless, after 
twenty-five years more in this vale of tears, 
I still see the roses. 

There are dark shadows that keep us from 
being perfectly happy. The problem of hu¬ 
man suffering, for instance, is always with 
us. Why do good people suffer? Why does 
the good God let good people suffer? We 
do not claim that the gospel of Christ com¬ 
pletely answers these questions. It does, 
however, shed a light on the way out of the 
valley that leads up to the shining lights, 
where we are sure that “some day we will 
understand.” 

We see even here the beginnings of the 
working of the law of compensation. To 
those pricked with the thorn in the flesh the 
Christ draws especially near, and says, “My 
grace is sufficient for thee.” This law, the 
beginnings of which we see here like a section 
of a rainbow, operates mightily into eternal 

82 


THE JOYOUS LIFE 


years. It was regarding those who suffered 
terribly under the tyranny of Nero, the 
damned, that the revelator said as he saw 
the other side of the sky, “These are they 
which came out of great tribulation, and 
have washed their robes and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are 
they before the throne of God, and serve him 
day and night in the temple: and he that sit- 
teth on the throne shall dwell among them. 
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
any more; neither shall the sun light on 
them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which 
is in the midst of the throne shall feed them 
and shall lead them unto living fountains 
of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes.” 

I saw two little boys at play the other 
day. One of them hurt his fingers on the 
door of the automobile. He went crying 
to his mother, and she took him in her arms 
and cuddled him and loved him and com¬ 
forted him and wiped away his tears. His 
little brother watched it all wistfully for a 
few moments and then he went out and hurt 
his finger too. Even so, it will be good when 
God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. 

I am sure that when we see the whole rain- 

83 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


bow we shall be convinced that “All things 
work together for good to them that love 
God.” 

Another shadow is caused by moral con¬ 
cern. How can we be happy, how can God 
be glad when so many are sinning, are sow¬ 
ing to their flesh and reaping corruption? 
John Wesley said that holy grief does not 
quench holy joy. I cannot explain this 
from a philosophical standpoint, but I have 
seen it illustrated in life! Those who care 
most for their brothers in sin, who have the 
most moral concern, are those who have 
somehow found the secret of the deepest joy. 
The gladdest smile I ever saw was on the 
tender face of Hadley of Water Street Mis¬ 
sion, who stood with a breaking heart out 
where the human wreckage drifted in on the 
tide. 

As a matter of fact, the reason most of 
us are not living the joyous life is not be¬ 
cause of these deep questionings concerning 
which we have been thinking; it is because of 
plain human restlessness and worry. Saint 
Augustine gave both the diagnosis and the 
cure when he said, “O Lord, thou hast made 
us for thyself, and our hearts are restless 
until they find rest in thee.” 

84 < 


THE JOYOUS LIFE 


When we come to think of it we remem¬ 
ber that most of our unhappiness is caused 
by annoyance over petty things. It is not 
the sorrow of the world but the lateness of 
the milkman that disturbs our day. A good 
deal of our misery is well stated by the oft- 
quoted remark: “I am an old man now and 
have had lots of trouble, but most of it never 
happened.” 

I do not affirm that the joy which is a 
natural result of fellowship with Christ is 
automatic. It requires careful cultivation. 
There is much truth in the reply of the old- 
fashioned Methodist who was asked, “Do 
you enjoy religion?” and answered, “I al¬ 
ways do when I have it.” But nevertheless 
it is possible for a child to be a member of a 
happy household and not appreciate nor 
appropriate spiritually his privileges. And 
it also seems possible for a person to be a 
regular member of God’s family and not be 
as happy as God’s children ought to be. 

We all need to cultivate the will to he glad . 
The apostle Paul said under discouraging 
circumstances, “/ will rejoice .” There was 
much philosophy in the words of an exas¬ 
perated mother who took her children to the 
picnic. One little lad was inclined to be dis- 

85 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


contented and fretful. Finally his mother 
said, “See here, John, I brought you here to 
have a good time, and now if you don’t have 
a good time, you will get a spanking when 
you go home.” After that Johnnie had a 
good time. 

We have not sufficiently emphasized the 
duty of being glad. The mere pursuit of 
external happiness is, of course, a vain thing. 
Some one has well said that joy is a by¬ 
product at the factory of service. 

Nevertheless, joy in the heart is the re¬ 
sult of a definite purpose. Our sins are for¬ 
given, there is moral help for us in Christ, 
we are surrounded with the mighty love of 
the Everlasting Father—we have every 
reason to be glad if we will. I say it rever¬ 
ently—God has put us here to have a good 
time. Not for that wholly, of course, but 
for that too. It is our duty to be glad. 

I was riding with my friend in his auto 
the other day. We came to a beautiful 
road, baptized with the golden glory of au¬ 
tumn. He owned the car and could go there 
if he would. The road was free for all. He 
turned the steering wheel and we entered 
that road. It was all in the turning of the 
wheel. 


86 


THE JOYOUS LIFE 


“They looked unto Him and were radiant, 
and their faces were not ashamed.” 

“If I have faltered more or less 
In my great task of happiness; 

If I have moved among my race 
And shown no glorious morning face, 

If beams from happy human eyes 
Have moved me not; if morning skies, 

Books and my food and summer rain 
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain, 

Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take 
And stab my spirit broad awake.” 

(Robert Louis Stevenson. Used by per¬ 
mission of Charles Scribner’s Sons.) 


87 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE CHRISTIAN’S HOME IN GLORY 

As a natural reaction from the old evan¬ 
gelistic appeal, “Get ready to die,” our mod¬ 
ern religious emphasis deals largely with the 
need of faith in God for the life that now 
is. The adjective “eternal” as applied to 
life in Christ is a qualitative as well as a 
quantitative word. It refers not merely to 
the duration of life but perhaps even more 
to its depth and fullness. Just staying 
around forever would not be eternal life ac¬ 
cording to the New Testament. 

Nevertheless, especially after the losses 
have come, and we approach the place that 
Lowell pathetically describes when he says, 

“As time goes on the road looks strange 
With faces new, and near the end 
The milestones into headstones change, 

’Neath every stone a friend,” 

we feel the need of a religious message that 
sees a light beyond the river. 

Any doctor who should advertise to cure 

88 


THE CHRISTIAN’S HOME 


our mortality, even with flimsy evidence for 
his claim, would have his office crowded with 
patients. This would seem to indicate that 
there are still many people who through the 
fear of death are all their lifetime subject 
to bondage. 

It is not my purpose here to enumerate 
the intimations and evidences of immortal¬ 
ity which are numerous in nature and life. 
It is refreshing to find so many voices in 
current literature recognizing the fact that 

“Something draws me upward there 
As morning draws the lark. 

It is as though my home were there 
To which my heart keeps turning— 

A home unseen but might be proved 
By this mysterious yearning.” 

Nor would I treat lightly the hope of some 
modern scientists to demonstrate future ex¬ 
istence. We should welcome truth from 
every quarter. 

The Christian, however, has a deeper cer¬ 
tainty in addition to all this. I had preached 
the gospel for twenty years, giving its mes¬ 
sage in homes of sorrow and by open graves. 
Then for the first time a great loss came to 
my own home. I had to face myself the ex¬ 
periences I had seen others meet so bravely, 

89 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 


and I found that all the words of comfort 
I had gleaned from God’s Word and spoken 
to others came to me with great beauty and 
comfort and power. The anchor held. 

The certainty of the Christian is not the 
certainty of science or of logic, although in 
the highest sense it is both scientific and 
logical. It is as if a good, true friend, of 
whose trustworthiness and intelligence there 
is no question, both having been proved in 
experience in life, were telling you something 
he knows. The words of comfort written 
in the Bible in my own hour of sorrow—and 
multitudes have had a similar experience— 
became as it were illuminated in my soul by 
the “earnest of the Spirit.” I heard no 
voice, yet I could feel the Christ saying to 
me, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye be¬ 
lieve in God, believe also in me. In my 
Father’s house are many mansions.” 

The Christian certainty is well stated by 
Paul, “We know that if our earthly house of 
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a 
building of God, an house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens.” 

And the foundation of our knowledge is 
the inner consciousness of a great fellow¬ 
ship—a sureness that: 

90 


THE CHRISTIAN’S HOME 


“This I do find, 

We too are so joined 
He will not stay in glory 
And leave me behind.” 

There is a correction of translation in 
the revised version of the fourteenth chapter 
of John that is significant. According to 
the King James Version, Jesus said, 
“Whither I go, ye know, and the way ye 
know.” What he really said—as the re¬ 
vision makes clear—is, “Whither I go, ye 
know the way” 1 The “whither” is just 
what we do not know. The geography of 
heaven is not given us, but white and 
clear, right by the house where we live, is 
the Way. 

Then you remember Thomas asked a ques¬ 
tion, a question that has been on your lips 
as you have read these words: “Lord, we 
know not whither thou goest; and how can 
we know the way?” 

Jesus replied to Thomas—and to us—“I 
am the Way” “You don’t need a map, 
when you have a guide. Here I am with 
you now and with you forever after a little 
while, pulsating with life and power, seeing 
clearly the eternal years. Give me your 


91 


italics not in original. 



o 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 

hand and your heart and let us go home to¬ 
gether” 

The finest certainty, then, is not found 
by feverishly looking for signs, nor by wait¬ 
ing for the slow discoveries of science, what¬ 
ever they may bring, but by entering into 
spiritual comradeship with the eternal 
Christ. 

Reader, the purpose of this little book is 
to help you to know Him whom to know fully 
is life eternal. Before you close its covers 
and lay it aside will you pause a moment 
and pray that into your life and mine, and 
into the lives of all who read it, there may 
come from a clear vision of the glory of God 
in the face of Jesus Christ a new radiance 
and power to meet life with a song and “To 
greet the unseen with a cheer”? Good night. 
I will see you in the morning. 


I 


92 



/ 


































Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 

















































































































































































































